Insidious: The Last Key: Film Review

Insidious: The Last Key: Film Review

Cast: Lin Shaye
Director: Adam Robitel

A final outing for the Insidious series sees the Blumhouse pile it low, return it high creativity hit a bit of a dead end.

Centring on the series' resident psychic Elise (Lin Shaye), the latest sees her called back to her family home to deal with the ghosts who are once again haunting the house. But unsurprisingly, she has her own demons to deal to as well.

Set up with a great prologue that delves deeper into Elise's background and shows that the cruellest of spirits actually dwell in the real world, the film decides to then settle for the usual mix of genre shocks and soundtrack related bumps as it continues its tale.

With a mix of comic relief thanks to two of Elise's sidekicks (one of whom looks like a schlubby Vincent Vega), the film tonally doesn't quite seem to know what exactly it wants to be.

Jumping back and forth between flashbacks to Elise's monstrous father, and then moving into family troubles in the present, complete with low rent atmospherics, Insidious: The Last Key doesn't seem to know what to do with its 74-year-old lead (a welcome change to the usual female in danger fare).

It's a shame, because at its heart, Insidious: The Last Key has a series of haunting moments (albeit mixed with a very bizarre Room-like twist) and the soundscape is certainly menacing enough, when it doesn't rely on the OST to provide all the bumps for the things in the night.

Shaye does various degrees of horrified as she wanders through a basement, but ultimately, Insidious: The Last Key doesn't really do or offer anything interesting with its histrionics and and tropes.

The most insidious thing about all this is how much it simply goes through the motions and wastes what opportunities it actually has to be a game changer.